This, that, and the other thing.

So dear friend and family, we're not on the road quite yet.  It turns out my departure date was a little on the optimistic side, turns out there was quite a bit more to get done than anticipated, less with the packing and more with the "hey we're going to be gone for a quarter of a year" sort of stuff.  

So yesterday was approximately a billion degrees and tempers were running a little high as well.  The general chaos of packing, stress of too much to do and too little time, and mechanical setbacks would have been bad enough without the extreme heat wave.  Luckily Laura (Rob's mom) came by to help in the morning and my mom came by later and with their help we did make quite a bit of progress! Aren't moms wonderful?  

So today we woke to cooler temperatures and better frames of mind. I'll let Rob tell you about the last Buick repair, but I will mention that since the wrong parts were delivered it took a whole day instead of 45 minutes so that's how he spent today. I spent a large portion of the day at the desk,  paying this months bills, finishing the house/dogsitting instructions and contact list for Karlie and getting her set up to pay bills while we're gone. I also collected and organized our starting money, gathered important documents, and packed:

• The box of "car money and gift cards" which is for tolls, gas, and drive throughs. 
• The watertight vital documents box which has our passports, a copy of our marriage licence (since we have different last names), copies of our drivers licenses, and some savings bonds we can cash if funds run short.
• The gift cards, membership cards, phone cards, our checkbooks (too large for the vitals box) went in a nice zip-up travel document "wallet" that'll be easy to store up front and grab when we go to a store.
• The guide books and maps. Books we'll be using as we go are in a messenger bag that can fit in my footwell, the ones for later legs of the trip are stored in under the "floor" of the back. When the rear-facing third seat (I always called it the barf seat, ask me about riding in one of those through San Fransisco and I can tell you why...or don't, it's probably self explanatory) is assembled this area would be the footwell.
• Rob's tablet and books, including the keyboard he can connect to his phone so he can write updates on the go. Don't worry, we won't leave you hanging!

I also assembled more that hasn't gotten formally packed yet, mowed the lawn and my sister gave me a haircut! (I'll spend more time on that when we finally get pics up, it was a ton of fun and I look great!)

Yesterday I managed to get the "cozy campsite" box packed.  This has all the stuff we need to set up camp not including the things that can be nicely rolled and stored in self contained bags like the tent, sleeping bags, folding chairs, etc.  I'll get you full lists in a later post.  The only thing currently missing from that box is extra batteries and an extra headlamp.

Laura (who is awesome) got my (majorly redundant) first aid kit packed, which only took three smallish containers...not counting the mini one we'll take hiking. Hey, after getting trained as a wilderness first responder it would look pretty bad if I headed off into the back of beyond with a store bought kit, right? Just humor me here, k?

Laura also helped us get one of the vacuum compression bags packed.  This has the clothing and soft items we are unlikely to need at the moment including jackets and an extra sleeping bag for warmth.  We had hoped this could also be stored under the floor but it was too tall. We then hoped it could be put in one of the trunks but it was too wide. So then Goldilocks came and...wait, sorry wrong story.  Anyway, we were hoping not to have to put anything on the roof to help with mpgs but we may have to stick it in the roof-rack bag. Oh well!

My mom (also awesome) helped wash the plates, pots, pans, cutlery, mugs...you get the idea, that we'll be bringing.  I'd been looking at the pile for a few days and just couldn't quite bring myself to tackle it. Luckily she came to the rescue so I can get the cooking box finished. While she was doing that I packed up the wrappings, bags, and sponges in a nifty little mechanic's folding stool that has a roomy storage pouch underneath.  This will give us an extra chair at the camp or perfect portable ottoman. 

Lastly I packed all of the liquid cleaning supplies, propane cylinders, and alcohol stove my dad made us in a small trunk.  I still need to get alcohol but even with that there's quite a bit of room left.  I've been debating what else to put in there, it'll probably wind up being the paper towels and toilet paper since they're light (the trunk is already pretty heavy) and can easily be replaced if there's a spill.

Whew...having written it all out I feel like we've gotten a lot more done then when I'm thinking about it.  Being surrounded by the chaos and constantly thinking "what's next" means all I'm seeing is what's left to do.  Admittedly that's still a lot but at least now I can see how much closer we are.  

Happy Trails!

-Miriam, Packer and Stacker